Its turbo-diesel engine requires Mobil 1 Delvac of a grade that the local stores don't require.
However, it gets 47 mpg on diesel, so it's pretty much worth it.
Honestly though, if Honda made a diesel Accord and sold it in the US, I'd trade up in a second. While the Jetta's Audi-inspired looks are nice, the interior is very Hyundai-ish.
What's taking up all my time? Work. (one salaried job=60+hrs/wk) School. Family. House.
doesn't that say something to you?
IT/CS salaries aren't what they were in the 1990's. (ie. My Point).
I used to rebuild my own VW engines, so I'm no stranger to self-oil changing.
Problem is; my current car uses a type of oil that is not available at any local retail stores. Nor is it's oil filter. Nor do I really have time anymore to do oil changes.
I'm not talking about CGI. I'm talking about the poor quality of transfer from the original film to DVD. Major quilting. Some scenes look like a 160x120 RealMedia download. Blown up on my 56" Toshiba rear-projection TV, I tell ya, looks like crap. It's my LEAST recommended box-set in my admittedly meager DVD library.
I was rich, when I had lots of dotcom stock in the 1990's.
Then I got laid off, and picked up another gig, for less pay.
When I was rich, I was happy. I worked my ass off then, and I work my ass of now. Back then, I didn't wonder how I was going to pay for my kids' college. Back then, I didn't have to think about which unnecessary expense I had to cut out of my budget to pay for increased commute costs due to rising gas prices. Back then, I didn't have to save up for a freaking oil change for my car.
Shit yeah, I was happy when I worked my ass off and was well compensated. Now I just work my ass off.
Right now, I'd say that the worst threat to freedom and democracy is Bad Reporting. Worse than Terrorism. Worse than Birkenstock Wearing Liberal Feminist Lesbian Berkely Graduate Students. Worse than Free Software.
It makes people, on average, stupider than getting their head and upper bodies squashed flat in a hydraulic press. I know. I did a study.
Imagine how "cool" it would be to revisit Indy Jones or Star Wars or Usual Suspects where someone in your group was one of the actors?
Considering the horrendously poor quality of digitization done on the Indiana Jones series (as evidenced by the DVD boxed set), I doubt that's ever going to happen.
If you sell 100 million nanos, and they're not perfect, there will be re-engineer jobs throughout the production to: 1. make production cheaper 2. improve quality 3. add new features
And there are other additional costs: 4. support / warranty
As a Theoretical Construct, the concept of "Free Markets" requires perfect, factual information flow - in order to function. In other words, when two manufacturers are competing to sell the same product, the customer must have complete information on the cost of that product to him or her. This includes; cost to drive to and from both retail outlets, including the customer's time (if one store is less conveniently located), cost to the consumer in the form of warranties, and intangibles like the quality of the service (employees) at the stores (how long they'll wait in the checkout line, how long it takes to find the product in the store, how long it takes to identify it, given possibly confusing packaging schemes, 2-for-1 pricing deals, etc.)
More information can only be BETTER for consumers.
Lower price tag isn't necessarily a lower cost for the consumer. For example, buying a cheaper, but otherwise an equivalent quality car manufactured in a third-world country using cheap labor can cost the consumer more in the long run, by participating in the gutting of his or her own country's manufacturing base, (with all the unwanted side-effects that includes).
Free Market Proponents like to say that this is all a good thing. But the ugly truth is, the "Free Market" is a theoretical construct. In the real world, consumers will act against their own best interest because they simply don't have all the information, or they've been passed false information.
There is no Free Market when producers are allowed to lie, or conceal information. There is no Free Market when producers are compelled by regulatory law, to truthfully divulge all information. Therefore, there can be no Free Market. It's a theoretical impossibility. In practice, keeping regulation to a minimum can be a good thing, and a desirable policy. But scammers will always try to find loopholes. And the more loopholes you try to close, the more complicated the regulatory structure gets, until it begins to generate unacceptable transactional friction. In short, the real problem is human beings.
Whistleblowers are not protected, therefore they must remain anonymous, which damages their credibility, and allows for abusive situations to develop where a competitor poses as a whistleblower.
A better situation would be if we had strong legislation to protect whistleblowers. (We have legislation, it's clearly insufficient). Then, whistleblowers could come forward out of anonymity, and speak truth without risk of reprisals. Then the truth of the claims can be fairly and openly assessed, and fake-whistleblowers will be rooted out.
Then that situation would create an environment where someone who was a poor worker, could claim to have dirt on his or her employee, to prevent them from being fired, because they'd be protected under whistleblower laws. The only recourse a company would have is to show documentation or witnesses that the person really was a poor worker, and to fire them with a just cause (which they would have done anyway, had the person abused whistleblower protection laws to keep from getting fired). Any whistleblower protection laws need to be fair, to protect employers from abuse as well.
The problem with the current political environment, is that it's so charged with ideology, and frustration with nuance-induced loopholes, that such a compromise will never be reached. Either you've got pro-business Republicans and Moderate Democrats pushing for elimination of all worker protections, or you've got extremist Democrats pushing for elimination of all employer protections - the result being a broken system. This government no longer functions. That much is clear.
I've had co-workers, and even people on other blogs, identify my slashdot id purely on my writing style. I, personally, don't think there's anything special about it, and I've been pretty careful about posting any personally identifying information. But people have still made the connection.
Even if this guy has forensically covered his tracks, he's still playing with fire by chatting up his co-workers on this blog. Sooner or later, someone's gonna put 2+2 together (probably not using Excel), and finger him. I feel sorry for what's going to happen to him. Someone better start bolting chairs to the floor in Ballmer's office.
Personally, when I read this piece and checked some of the rest of his blog (always helps to find the context), I also found him a bit... shrill.
I dunno. I think "shrill" is perfectly acceptible, hell, even called for, when this voting machine scam has been out there for 5+ years now, and nobody has done a damn thing about it. If you care about Democracy, if you love your country, shrill is necessary, in this case.
Nice idea, but if it's only going to work with pre-packaged tamper-proof cartridges, then when your fuel cell is done metabolizing the methanol, you've got to dispose of the damn cartriges - unless they make them recyclable or reusable/refillable. It's like the damn printer ink-cartridge bullshit all over again.
Um, the same theme occurred in ancient babylonian mythology, judaic mythology, christian mythology, and islamic mythology. So I wouldn't blame the Christian God specifically.
Actually, the same thing seems to have happend in computers too. Once the whole world seemed to have standardized on Posix. Then Bill Gates came along. . . .
From my viewpoint, God may not have had punishment in mind. But from the ancient Babylonians, it seemed like a punishment. The outcome of this plan, however, was the end of a memetic monoculture. God wanted to create a more rich environment to breed better, more robust memes.
Considering the range of human ideas and experience that has resulted now, some 6-7000 years later, I'd say the plan worked. Now, our challenge, is to bring all those varied memes together, to build a best-of-breed, without once again creating a monoculture. Of course, with the level of xenophobia among all the human cultures of the world today, I highly doubt that a global monoculture is even a remote possibility.
I don't see any problem with the theory that "organic matter" came to primative earth from comets, mixed with water, which was vaporized, then condensed, then that "organic matter" became the building blocks for life.
But at that stage of earth's life, there's little distinction between a comet and earth. They're both big hunks of rock and ice floating in space. I'm sure some "organic matter" originated on earth too. What they're saying is simple hydrocarbons were catalyzed into more complex organic molecules by; lighting, UV, volcanic activity. All of those could happen on earth, and the first two could happen on comets.
What I really don't understand is, where they think they're going with this line of theory. I mean, we can speculate on which of the two was possible - or that both were possible. But there's no way in hell we're going to know which of the two it was. Not until someon invents a time machine, or until we discover a new primordial planetary system to observe.
Actually, it would be nice (in theory) if Office's VBA were compatible cross-platform.
But unless they're figuring on bundling a.NET runtime with Office OS X, it ain't gonna happen. And even if they did that, coders would have to write their code to be OS-agnostic. And in order to support database activity, they'd have to port Access to OS X (or maybe come up with a useful abstraction layer that could adapt to the other databases available for OS X; Oracle, MySQL, etc. - which would be disasterous for MS SQL.)
No - there's really not much point at all to using Office on OS X. Any of the special WIndows Office features that Open Office can't do, Office OS X can't do either.
(My company actually inherited this team from IBM by way of Loral, I joined up later).
One thing that the "old timers" have, that a lot of the younger workers do not, is experience with the ins and outs of working with our particular customers, which is not easy; it's a maze of rules and regulations and customs that newer people, as experienced in java servlets and n-tier architecture as they are, simply don't grasp. We *do* need to get these people into more of a teaching role. Or that very specialized knowledge, which isn't taught at any college curriculum that I'm aware of, (not outside the military) will disappear. Then screwed we will all be.
I'm not sure that satellite imagery will help with this one, but last night, I discovered a new gopher-hole in my back yard. Determined to flood them out, I stuck my hose down the hole and turned it on. In the past, they usually fill-up in about 30 seconds, and often, the gopher will come out, being pushed by the water, and head off into the bushes.
This time, the hole didn't fill up. I kept running the hose. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. Where the fuck is all this water going. 15 minutes. I stopped. I didn't see anywhere else where the water might have been draining downhill through other channels. But at a rate of about 10 gallons per minute, I wasted about 150 gallons down that gopher hole, which is far beyond what a normal gopher hole should hold. Unless there's a connection to a void, or an underground city of mole-people. (I usually leave moles alone, because they don't do much damage. Not like those damn gophers).
Tomorrow, I'm going to get my shovel out, and find the answer.
Slashdot Mirror
VW Jetta TDI.
Its turbo-diesel engine requires Mobil 1 Delvac of a grade that the local stores don't require.
However, it gets 47 mpg on diesel, so it's pretty much worth it.
Honestly though, if Honda made a diesel Accord and sold it in the US, I'd trade up in a second. While the Jetta's Audi-inspired looks are nice, the interior is very Hyundai-ish.
What's taking up all my time? Work. (one salaried job=60+hrs/wk) School. Family. House.
doesn't that say something to you?
IT/CS salaries aren't what they were in the 1990's. (ie. My Point).
I used to rebuild my own VW engines, so I'm no stranger to self-oil changing.
Problem is; my current car uses a type of oil that is not available at any local retail stores. Nor is it's oil filter. Nor do I really have time anymore to do oil changes.
I'm not talking about CGI. I'm talking about the poor quality of transfer from the original film to DVD. Major quilting. Some scenes look like a 160x120 RealMedia download. Blown up on my 56" Toshiba rear-projection TV, I tell ya, looks like crap. It's my LEAST recommended box-set in my admittedly meager DVD library.
Major WTF for me.
I thought they meant Neil Gaiman's Sandman.
This Sandman looks stupid.
Fuck it.
I was rich, when I had lots of dotcom stock in the 1990's.
Then I got laid off, and picked up another gig, for less pay.
When I was rich, I was happy. I worked my ass off then, and I work my ass of now. Back then, I didn't wonder how I was going to pay for my kids' college. Back then, I didn't have to think about which unnecessary expense I had to cut out of my budget to pay for increased commute costs due to rising gas prices. Back then, I didn't have to save up for a freaking oil change for my car.
Shit yeah, I was happy when I worked my ass off and was well compensated. Now I just work my ass off.
Right now, I'd say that the worst threat to freedom and democracy is Bad Reporting. Worse than Terrorism. Worse than Birkenstock Wearing Liberal Feminist Lesbian Berkely Graduate Students. Worse than Free Software.
It makes people, on average, stupider than getting their head and upper bodies squashed flat in a hydraulic press. I know. I did a study.
Imagine how "cool" it would be to revisit Indy Jones or Star Wars or Usual Suspects where someone in your group was one of the actors?
Considering the horrendously poor quality of digitization done on the Indiana Jones series (as evidenced by the DVD boxed set), I doubt that's ever going to happen.
I suppose if a woman invented the circular saw, anything is possible.
Not necessarily true.
If you sell 100 million nanos, and they're not perfect, there will be re-engineer jobs throughout the production to:
1. make production cheaper
2. improve quality
3. add new features
And there are other additional costs:
4. support / warranty
etc.
As a Theoretical Construct, the concept of "Free Markets" requires perfect, factual information flow - in order to function. In other words, when two manufacturers are competing to sell the same product, the customer must have complete information on the cost of that product to him or her. This includes; cost to drive to and from both retail outlets, including the customer's time (if one store is less conveniently located), cost to the consumer in the form of warranties, and intangibles like the quality of the service (employees) at the stores (how long they'll wait in the checkout line, how long it takes to find the product in the store, how long it takes to identify it, given possibly confusing packaging schemes, 2-for-1 pricing deals, etc.)
More information can only be BETTER for consumers.
Lower price tag isn't necessarily a lower cost for the consumer.
For example, buying a cheaper, but otherwise an equivalent quality car manufactured in a third-world country using cheap labor can cost the consumer more in the long run, by participating in the gutting of his or her own country's manufacturing base, (with all the unwanted side-effects that includes).
Free Market Proponents like to say that this is all a good thing. But the ugly truth is, the "Free Market" is a theoretical construct. In the real world, consumers will act against their own best interest because they simply don't have all the information, or they've been passed false information.
There is no Free Market when producers are allowed to lie, or conceal information. There is no Free Market when producers are compelled by regulatory law, to truthfully divulge all information. Therefore, there can be no Free Market. It's a theoretical impossibility.
In practice, keeping regulation to a minimum can be a good thing, and a desirable policy. But scammers will always try to find loopholes. And the more loopholes you try to close, the more complicated the regulatory structure gets, until it begins to generate unacceptable transactional friction. In short, the real problem is human beings.
Well, if that's the case, I apologize if you end up in Camp X-Ray/Guantanamo Bay for anything I write.
I would have suggested Services For Unix. . .
Clearly, the current situation is bad.
Whistleblowers are not protected, therefore they must remain anonymous, which damages their credibility, and allows for abusive situations to develop where a competitor poses as a whistleblower.
A better situation would be if we had strong legislation to protect whistleblowers. (We have legislation, it's clearly insufficient). Then, whistleblowers could come forward out of anonymity, and speak truth without risk of reprisals. Then the truth of the claims can be fairly and openly assessed, and fake-whistleblowers will be rooted out.
Then that situation would create an environment where someone who was a poor worker, could claim to have dirt on his or her employee, to prevent them from being fired, because they'd be protected under whistleblower laws. The only recourse a company would have is to show documentation or witnesses that the person really was a poor worker, and to fire them with a just cause (which they would have done anyway, had the person abused whistleblower protection laws to keep from getting fired). Any whistleblower protection laws need to be fair, to protect employers from abuse as well.
The problem with the current political environment, is that it's so charged with ideology, and frustration with nuance-induced loopholes, that such a compromise will never be reached. Either you've got pro-business Republicans and Moderate Democrats pushing for elimination of all worker protections, or you've got extremist Democrats pushing for elimination of all employer protections - the result being a broken system. This government no longer functions. That much is clear.
I've had co-workers, and even people on other blogs, identify my slashdot id purely on my writing style. I, personally, don't think there's anything special about it, and I've been pretty careful about posting any personally identifying information. But people have still made the connection.
Even if this guy has forensically covered his tracks, he's still playing with fire by chatting up his co-workers on this blog. Sooner or later, someone's gonna put 2+2 together (probably not using Excel), and finger him. I feel sorry for what's going to happen to him. Someone better start bolting chairs to the floor in Ballmer's office.
Personally, when I read this piece and checked some of the rest of his blog (always helps to find the context), I also found him a bit ... shrill.
I dunno. I think "shrill" is perfectly acceptible, hell, even called for, when this voting machine scam has been out there for 5+ years now, and nobody has done a damn thing about it. If you care about Democracy, if you love your country, shrill is necessary, in this case.
You want to REALLY be mad?
Think of the taxes you paid to BUY these machines, which did not meet the minimum requirements of their contract. And we keep buying more.
Nice idea, but if it's only going to work with pre-packaged tamper-proof cartridges, then when your fuel cell is done metabolizing the methanol, you've got to dispose of the damn cartriges - unless they make them recyclable or reusable/refillable. It's like the damn printer ink-cartridge bullshit all over again.
If there is a Christian god, he is a DICK!
Um, the same theme occurred in ancient babylonian mythology, judaic mythology, christian mythology, and islamic mythology. So I wouldn't blame the Christian God specifically.
Actually, the same thing seems to have happend in computers too. Once the whole world seemed to have standardized on Posix. Then Bill Gates came along. . . .
From my viewpoint, God may not have had punishment in mind. But from the ancient Babylonians, it seemed like a punishment. The outcome of this plan, however, was the end of a memetic monoculture. God wanted to create a more rich environment to breed better, more robust memes.
Considering the range of human ideas and experience that has resulted now, some 6-7000 years later, I'd say the plan worked. Now, our challenge, is to bring all those varied memes together, to build a best-of-breed, without once again creating a monoculture. Of course, with the level of xenophobia among all the human cultures of the world today, I highly doubt that a global monoculture is even a remote possibility.
I want to lead a torch carrying mob down K Street and sack every lobbyist office and burn every corporate jet at the airport.
Dude, gimme a call when you're ready to go. Just not on a Saturday, my weekends are kind of tight lately. . .
Water gets vaporized on earth all the time.
Then it comes down as rain.
I don't see any problem with the theory that "organic matter" came to primative earth from comets, mixed with water, which was vaporized, then condensed, then that "organic matter" became the building blocks for life.
But at that stage of earth's life, there's little distinction between a comet and earth. They're both big hunks of rock and ice floating in space. I'm sure some "organic matter" originated on earth too. What they're saying is simple hydrocarbons were catalyzed into more complex organic molecules by; lighting, UV, volcanic activity. All of those could happen on earth, and the first two could happen on comets.
What I really don't understand is, where they think they're going with this line of theory. I mean, we can speculate on which of the two was possible - or that both were possible. But there's no way in hell we're going to know which of the two it was. Not until someon invents a time machine, or until we discover a new primordial planetary system to observe.
Actually, it would be nice (in theory) if Office's VBA were compatible cross-platform.
.NET runtime with Office OS X, it ain't gonna happen. And even if they did that, coders would have to write their code to be OS-agnostic. And in order to support database activity, they'd have to port Access to OS X (or maybe come up with a useful abstraction layer that could adapt to the other databases available for OS X; Oracle, MySQL, etc. - which would be disasterous for MS SQL.)
But unless they're figuring on bundling a
No - there's really not much point at all to using Office on OS X. Any of the special WIndows Office features that Open Office can't do, Office OS X can't do either.
optical audio would be sweet.
Same problem where I work.
(My company actually inherited this team from IBM by way of Loral, I joined up later).
One thing that the "old timers" have, that a lot of the younger workers do not, is experience with the ins and outs of working with our particular customers, which is not easy; it's a maze of rules and regulations and customs that newer people, as experienced in java servlets and n-tier architecture as they are, simply don't grasp. We *do* need to get these people into more of a teaching role. Or that very specialized knowledge, which isn't taught at any college curriculum that I'm aware of, (not outside the military) will disappear. Then screwed we will all be.
I'm not sure that satellite imagery will help with this one, but last night, I discovered a new gopher-hole in my back yard. Determined to flood them out, I stuck my hose down the hole and turned it on. In the past, they usually fill-up in about 30 seconds, and often, the gopher will come out, being pushed by the water, and head off into the bushes.
This time, the hole didn't fill up. I kept running the hose. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. Where the fuck is all this water going. 15 minutes. I stopped. I didn't see anywhere else where the water might have been draining downhill through other channels. But at a rate of about 10 gallons per minute, I wasted about 150 gallons down that gopher hole, which is far beyond what a normal gopher hole should hold. Unless there's a connection to a void, or an underground city of mole-people. (I usually leave moles alone, because they don't do much damage. Not like those damn gophers).
Tomorrow, I'm going to get my shovel out, and find the answer.